This Blog is being maintained by Dr. Kevin C. Desouza. Dr. Desouza is on the faculty of the Information School at the University of Washington. The Blog will be used to provide updates on his current research projects – Leveraging Ideas for Organizational Innovation, and Demystifying the Link between
Innovation and Business Value.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

We have another paper ready for submission to a journal – “Sustaining Innovation: The Challenge for Incumbents”. The authors of the paper are Ashley Braganza (Cranfield University, UK), Yukika Awazu (Bentley College), and Kevin Desouza (University of Washington)

Abstract:

In today’s competitive environment, the ability of an organization to innovate is considered paramount. While most organizations have flashes or spurts of innovation, only a handful of organizations have been able to innovate on a continuous and sustained basis. In this paper, we report on the challenges faced by firms when trying to build sustainable innovation programs. These findings have been deduced from an examination of innovation programs in over 30 organizations based in the North America, Europe, and Asia.

In the paper we analyze issues such as the inhibitors of innovation (e.g. pursuit of stability, risk avoidance, bounded by experience, lack of requisite variety, etc). In addition, we outline several interventions, including the portfolio approach to allocating resources for innovation, training managers to be innovators, communicating the value of innovation, among others.

About Me

Kevin C. Desouza is an Assistant Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington. He is also Adjunct Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering at the College of Engineering. He founded the Institute for National Security Education and Research, an inter-disciplinary, university-wide initiative, in August 2006 and served as its Director until February 2008. He currently serves as the Director of the Institute for Innovation in Information Management (I3M). He has seven books to his name. His latest book is Managing Knowledge Security: Strategies for Protecting Your Company’s Intellectual Assets (Kogan Page, 2007). In addition, he has published over 100 articles in prestigious practitioner and academic journals. He has received over $1.2 million of research funding from both private and government organizations. Dr. Desouza is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.